Cream-Era Eric Clapton Explains How His Gibson 'The Fool' SG Works

Did you know "the electronic guitar is often dismissed as nothing but a jangling noise machine incapable of subtlety or delicacy"? Neither did I—until I saw this 1968 video of Eric Clapton sitting peacefully on stage prior to a Cream show as bassist Jack Bruce looks on.

Did you know "the electronic guitar is often dismissed as nothing but a jangling noise machine incapable of subtlety or delicacy"?

Neither did I—until I saw this 1968 video of Eric Clapton sitting peacefully on stage prior to a Cream show as bassist Jack Bruce looks on.

Of course, Clapton doesn't utter these awesomely corny words. That job is left to the very square-sounding narrator of the classic clip, who introduces Clapton's quick "How to Use a Gibson SG to Get the Classic Clapton Tone" lesson.

Apparently, the SG has "four primary controls: controls for volume and controls for tone quality." Luckily, Clapton takes it from there, as he explains what each knob does and then goes on to play some very Cream-era-Clapton-sounding licks. First he gets something resembling his trademark "woman tone" before he turns up the treble.

But it gets even better. Clapton then engages his wah-wah pedal and plays a few more licks before carefully explaining—and demonstrating—his "woman" tone at 2:05.

In the clip, Clapton is playing his now-famous 1964 Gibson SG, better known as 'The Fool' because it was painted for him by a Dutch design collective of the same name.

"The guitar was in horrible shape at the time. The paint job was all flaked off because they never put a sealer on it. It didn’t have the original tailpiece, the neck was a mess at one point, the headstock snapped off. I did a lot of work on it. I played it for decades, and I owned it until the mid-Nineties. I owed the IRS a lot of money, so I auctioned it off. But I did get to play it onstage with Ringo [Starr]—with Jack Bruce, we did 'Sunshine of Your Love,' which I thought was appropriate."